Live breaking news: Fury at quarantined travellers' 'scary' act, hospital staff ordered to isolate, 7yo boy charged with rape - NEWS.com.au

The concerning photographs were taken by Brisbane resident Bob Price as he walked past the Hotel Grand Chancellor quarantine hotel on Tuesday.

“I saw them leaning over so they were breathing in each other’s faces,” Mr Price told the Courier Mail.

“And you can see one person possibly passing the other something over their balconies.

“It’s really annoying and kind of scary to see contact between people in a quarantine hotel,” he said. We would hope everyone is taking this lockdown seriously.”

Two men were given official warnings by police as a result.

You can find yesterday’s live blog here, and all the latest breaking news below.

Live Updates

A Brisbane resident has captured the moment two individuals appeared to break quarantine rules in a "scary" display.

Bob Price was walking past the Hotel Grand Chancellor quarantine hotel on Tuesday when he spotted two guests in different rooms making physical contact over their adjoining balconies and apparently passing items back and forth.

“I saw them leaning over so they were breathing in each other’s faces,” Mr Price told the Courier Mail.
“And you can see one person possibly passing the other something over their balconies.

"It’s really annoying and kind of scary to see contact between people in a quarantine hotel,” he said. We would hope everyone is taking this lockdown seriously.”

Two men were given official warnings by police as a result.

This snap appears to show quarantined travellers breaking the rules.

Former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has contracted coronavirus.

She told PEOPLE in a statement that her "symptoms started overnight with a slight fever and sore muscles."

She said she also experienced some of the "bizarre" symptoms typically seen in COVID patients, including a loss of taste and smell, which caused her to conclude it was "unmistakable COVID caught me."

"That day I finally tested positive — like millions of other Americans," she told the publication.

Several other members of her family have also tested positive.

Sarah Palin has contracted coronavirus.

Controversial British socialite Lady Colin Campbell has claimed that Princess Anne is the previously unnamed royal hit with racism allegations by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their explosive Oprah interview.

But Campbell insists the race row was in fact a “misunderstanding,” and that the senior royal had instead been expressing concerns about whether Meghan was a good fit for the royal family.

Both Harry and Meghan had claimed in their tell-all Oprah interview that one member of the royal family had expressed concerns about how dark their baby’s skin might be, before Archie had been born.

It was a revelation that left Oprah – and viewers worldwide – shocked, but Harry and Meghan both stopped short of naming the royal, with Meghan explaining that it would be too “damaging” to the person to name them.

Since then, speculation has raged over which member of the royal family the couple were referring to. Now, UK socialite and prolific royal author Campbell claims it’s Prince Harry’s aunt, Princess Anne.

Meghan and Harry made the claims during their Oprah tell-all.

-Ben Graham and Shireen Khalil

There are chaotic scenes in Byron Bay after thousands of blues fans were turned away from the city’s iconic Bluesfest festival in a last-minute cancellation.

Some had travelled from as far away as WA — with one group making a 30-hour drive from Geraldton — only to be told the event wouldn’t be going ahead due to fears of a COVID-19 outbreak.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard signed a public health order cancelling the event.

As a result, food vendors, with fridges and freezers full of produce ready to sell to the festival’s 15,000 people attendees, were left stranded.

Artists have also been left devastated, with one band lashing the decision to scrap the event as “absolutely disgusting”.

Bluesfest typically wraps up the summer festival circuit and has won several local and international awards. Picture:News Regional Media

A racy new tourism campaign for South Australia — which invites Aussies to “go down south with your mouth” against a crimson-tinted image of a vineyard — is being met with disbelief and suspicion that it may be an April Fool’s prank.

The campaign image, which is going wild on social media, was released overnight alongside a YouTube channel and social media page.

It features a video with a narrator speaking seductively over aerial flyovers of vineyards and coastlines, and images of wines and cocktails being poured into glasses.

The campaign is said to be rolling out over six months across traditional media, out of home advertising, digital and social media channels and is supported by ongoing content and PR activity.

“While we can’t travel abroad, South Australia is a mesh of exciting, multicultural cuisine with industry personnel from all over the world calling it home,” the press release states.

“Our diverse pocket of Australia is home to world-class chefs, industry-leading winemakers, and producers of the most sought after organic delights.”

The ad has raised eyebrows.

-Melissa Iaria

There have been sightings of an elderly Melbourne couple in their gold Lexus more than 400km away from where they were last seen.

Bentleigh couple Otto and Gerda, both 87, were last seen leaving a carpark in Kings Way in their gold sedan, registration PYM-184, about 6.30pm on Tuesday.

They failed to attend a booked medical appointment on Wednesday morning, prompting concerns from their family and police, as they require ongoing medical treatment.

Police have since received information their gold Lexus was seen bogged near a lake north of Rainbow about 5pm on Wednesday.

It’s believed a truck driver helped them and they were seen driving north on Henty Highway towards Hopetoun.

Melbourne couple Otto and Gerda, both 87, went missing in their gold Lexus on Tuesday night.

NSW Police is seeking urgent public assistance to help locate two children missing from Sydney’s east this morning.

Just before 2.30am, Bowie and Basten Dowlut, aged four and ten respectively, were at a home on Carthona Avenue, Darling Point, with their parents.

Despite strong protestations from the children’s mother, their father, Dennis Dowlut, aged 47, packed the family into a white 2014 SsangYong Actyon SUV, with NSW registration DLF-43A, expressing an intention to travel to Melbourne.

About 3am, their mother was forced from the vehicle at Alexandria and notified police.

Bowie is described as having an olive complexion, long brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing white pyjamas with pink unicorn symbols.

Ten-year-old Basten is described as having an olive complexion, short brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing white pyjama pants, a white t-shirt, and black puffer jacket.

Four-year-old Bowie is described as having an olive complexion, long brown hair and brown eyes. Picture: NSW Police

With millions of Americans being vaccinated for the coronavirus each day, a new political fight is brewing over the idea of using “vaccine passports” to help accelerate the country’s return to normal life.

The passport – likely accessed via a digital app or website – would allow businesses and the venues for large in-person events to screen people, ensuring all customers or attendees have been vaccinated.

In theory, this would allow hard-hit industries to reopen more fully without nearly as much risk of spreading the virus by hosting infected customers.

From the individual’s perspective, vaccine passports could let people return to the sorts of activities that have been subject to stringent COVID restrictions this past year, such as attending sporting events, concerts and gyms, or eating inside restaurants.

In practice, however, the idea is more complicated. The US does not have a national database of who has been vaccinated, so it’s unclear how the passport would verify someone’s status.

There are also concerns about people’s privacy, and the lack of freedom this sort of passport could impose on unvaccinated people.

An elderly woman receives a dose of AstraZeneca vaccine against the Covid-19. Picture: Robert Atanasovski/AFP

Australia is well and truly behind our coronavirus vaccine schedule, with the nation falling far short of the March goal.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison had hoped that by yesterday, four million Aussies would have received their jab.

However, just 670,000 people had received their dose at March 31.

The government has claimed all willing adults will receive the vaccine by October this year.

But according to The Australian, “at the current rate, the most vulnerable will not be vaccinated until June 2023 and the full population not until October 2024”.
“Every previous target has been missed and every upcoming target will be missed,” reporter Matthew Lesh wrote yesterday.

COVID-19 cases are spiking again in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to introduce a three-week closure of schools and a month-long local travel ban.

The harsh rules were announced in a televised speech, with Mr Macron announcing “the epidemic is accelerating."

"We’re going to close nursery, elementary and high schools for three weeks,” he said, adding that a nationwide 7pm – 6am curfew will be kept in place," he said on air.

“If we stay united in the coming weeks … then we will see light at the end of the tunnel."